Ok, the reason I’m late in issuing full endorsements of candidates in the 2018 Oakland Elections is that I didn’t want to discourage anyone running for office from posting their message at Oakland News Now.
The idea of Oakland News Now is to present the website for individual use by political candidates, Oakland legends like Paul Cobb, or anyone who has something to say. In that way, it’s more like Facebook, where everyone has their space to say something.
But even with that, a number of candidates made assumptions about where I stood and basically avoided using the system. But, those same candidates, had no problem using Mark Zuckerberg’s site Facebook, or Jack Dorsey’s micro-blog Twitter, even though my system is designed to send their posts to those places, and to 15 different sites, in total.
That written, I want to thank the many candidates who did use Oakland News Now on a regular basis. The experiment worked well, and in some cases beyond my expectations.
Also, if you want to read and learn about the candidates before you vote, visit the Oakland News Now 2018 Candidates Page.
I’m excited for the next step in this unfolding media strategy, but that’s for another time. It’s election day, and here are my endorsements.
Federal:
Congressmember D13 Barbara Lee (Who else?)
U.S. Senator: Diane Feinstein
California State:
Governor: Gavin Newsom
Lt. Governor: Eleni Kounalakis
Secretary of State: Alex Padilla
State Controller: Betty Yee
State Treasurer: Fiona Ma
Attorney General: Xavier Becerra
Insurance Commissioner: Ricardo Lara
State Board of Equalization D2: Malia Cohen
State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond
Assembly District 18: Rob Bonta
Assembly District 15: Buffy Wicks
City Of Oakland
Mayor: Libby Schaaf, Cat Brooks, Saied Kamarooz
City Auditor: Brenda Roberts
District Two City Council: Abel Guillen
District Four City Council: Sheng Thao / Nayeli Maxon / Pamela Harris Or Joseph Tanios
District Six City Council: Desley Brooks / Natasha Middleton / Marlo Rodriquez
Oakland School Board District Four: Clarissa Doutherd
County of Alameda
Assessor: Phong La
Alameda County Transit At Large: Joel Young
Peralta Community College District
Board Trustees: Dr. William Riley, Linda Handy
City Of Berkeley
City Council, District 1: Igor A. Tregub
City Council, District 4: Kate Harrison
City Of Hayward
Mayor: Mark Salinas
City Council: Aisha Wahab, Sarah Lamnin
School Board: Todd Davis
City Of Alameda
Mayor: Trish Herrera Spencer
City Council: John Knox White
City Council: Jim Oddie
School Board: Mia Bonta
California State Measures
Prop 1 – YES
Prop 2 – YES
Prop 3 – YES
Prop 4 – YES
Prop 5 – NO
Prop 6 – NO
Prop 10 – YES
Oakland Measures
Yes on E – Peralta Colleges, funding schools
Yes on G – Peralta Colleges, upgrading aging educational resources
Yes on V – Cannabis
Yes on W – Vacant Property Taxes
Yes on Y – Just Cause Renter Protections
Yes on X – Progressive Real Estate Transfer Tax
Yes on AA – Children’s Initiative